


stand by

by voltemand



Category: Cobra Kai (Web Series)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-15 04:46:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28807530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voltemand/pseuds/voltemand
Summary: Johnny Lawrence is standing outside his door, saying his name, and Daniel is younger than ever, his body aflame, and he’s married, and he’s seventeen, and he’s fifty-one, and he’s drumming his hands against his knees, waiting for the roughOof Johnny’s mouth to close, watching, wanting.
Relationships: Daniel LaRusso/Johnny Lawrence
Comments: 20
Kudos: 55





	stand by

A man stands outside a door.

A man stands outside a door, and he doesn’t knock.

A man stands outside a door, and he’s got red-stained fingers and wild eyes and a death wish. He wouldn’t call it that, though.

A man stands outside a door, and he’s waiting for another man, and he doesn’t know how to say _You. I am waiting for you._ He doesn’t know how to say _I think I’ve been waiting for a long time._

A man stands outside a door, his head pounding with the dull ache of desire, and he closes his eyes.

\--

Johnny is old. Johnny is older than he thought he’d ever live to be, not because he thought he’d ever die, but because he never bothered to think before. He has lived his life on momentum alone. He has eaten and been eaten and drank and been drunk in and fucked and been fucked. He has touched, none too softy. He has been touched, far too softly. But maybe he dreamt that. Maybe he is still dreaming.

The door swings open.

“LaRusso,” Johnny says.

\--

Some things-- _most things_ , Daniel thinks, Daniel knows--are too good to be true.

Johnny Lawrence is standing outside his door, saying his name, and Daniel is younger than ever, his body aflame, and he’s married, and he’s seventeen, and he’s fifty-one, and he’s drumming his hands against his knees, waiting for the rough _O_ of Johnny’s mouth to close, watching, wanting.

“What are you doing here” is not a question. It is not a question, and Daniel is not seventeen anymore. But then, Johnny is seventeen, or he should be, the memory of him always superimposed with the real man; Daniel knows it’s unfair. Daniel doesn’t want to hear anything more about how unfair he is.

“I needed to talk to you.” He’s got a bruise on his forehead again, plum-purple, good enough to eat.

“It’s the middle of the night, man.” Nevertheless, Daniel steps out. The door clicks behind him.

\--

 _It’s like this_ , Johnny thinks. He and Daniel are here. And when they’re in the same place, they fight. And he needs a fight.

 _It’s like this_ , he thinks. _I need him. I need him for this._

 _It’s like this_ , he thinks. _I need a fight for me. He needs a fight for him._

 _It’s like this_ , he thinks. _He needs me for this. He needs me._

He swings at Daniel’s head.

\--

Daniel blocks the punch easily, grabbing Johnny’s arm, holding him close, holding him. Johnny’s grown sloppy, the edge of his mouth speckled with spittle, everything about him loose and fading.

“Stop,” Daniel says very clearly. “My family is in there.”

Johnny squirms, doesn’t try to escape, glances at the house. “Sure.”

“Stop,” Daniel says again, louder, feels the rattle of his heart, _his_ heart. 

“I need,” and Johnny’s pounding on his arm, a strange clipped beat, a _taptaptap_ , “you need me.”

Daniel, surprised, lets him go.

\--

A man, and the man is Johnny Lawrence, just said “I need.” A man is a man is a man, and Johnny is not a good man. A man is a man is a man, and Johnny is needed, is needful, is a man needing a man.

“You need me,” a man just said, and thou, Johnny Lawrence, art the man.

\--

“I don’t want to fight,” but Daniel’s not sure if he believes himself; he’s a mass of nerves, a walking hindbrain.

“Nah,” Johnny says, grinning almost wolfishly, teeth surprisingly good, straight and even and oh-so-white, “you do.”

“I can’t make you fight” (a lie, an obvious lie, Johnny will fight with him; Daniel knows this) “I can’t have you do that for me.”

“I would,” he says, insistent, and Daniel’s reminded of what he likes in Johnny. His vulnerability. His heart. How he needs, as they say, to be needed, wants to be wanted. “I would for you.”

“Get in the car,” Daniel tells him.

Johnny gets in.

\--

It’s a nice car, all things considered. Probably cost an arm and a leg (if Johnny was a different sort of man, maybe he would think of his own arms, his own legs now; as is, he is blithely unaware of himself, or perhaps, as hyper-aware as ever, so no difference, really; don’t you know what’s it like to be a human being?).

“Why,” he asks, very seriously, very quietly, knowing that no matter what he does Daniel will find a bubble of rage under his own skin and pick it out and let it sit there, awkward and dirty, dripping all over the leather.

“I don’t know!” A snap, almost. Johnny wants to poke him, to prod him, to push him into a wall and put his hand over his mouth, feel him breathe, feel his teeth sink in.

Daniel starts the engine. 

They drive. Sometimes Johnny will open and close the window, and Daniel’s mouth sets and Johnny will do it again, will look at Daniel, will try to make Daniel look at him. Sometimes Daniel will glance over and Johnny’s head is bobbing to some imaginary beat. Sometimes they both just look at the road.

\--

Two men and each waits to be told that he is the one the other has been waiting for. Two men and neither knows how to say that he has been waiting.

Two men and they wait.

**Author's Note:**

> Yell with me on Tumblr at [withatalentforsquaddrill](https://withatalentforsquaddrill.tumblr.com) (for general bullshit) or [foresme](https://foresme.tumblr.com) (for fandom bullshit).


End file.
